YouTube is strengthening its approach towards content on its platform that is not age-appropriate. This means that users will now see a lot of more videos on YouTube than before, pop up with age gated restrictions. The social media company did the same for videos containing hateful content by relying on machine learning to better detect such content.
As a result of a stricter policy, users that watch YouTube videos embedded in third-party sites will also be redirected to YouTube's main site, where they would be required to sign in to their account and verify their age.
Amidst the policy update, there are some concerns being raised by creators in YouTube's Partner Program, about whether YouTube's updated measures would have any effect on their moneymaking potential. The answer is most probably no, as YouTube believes that videos labelled with age restrictions will automatically have limited or no ads, as they are likely to simultaneously violate YouTube's advertiser-friendly guidelines due to being age-restricted.
Moreover, using machine learning moderation would definitely lead to more errors being made in terms of incorrectly labelling and removing content.
Another aspect that YouTube has clarified as part of the measures is that while age-restricted content is less likely to appear on YouTube's homepage, the label wouldn't necessarily ''prohibit'' such videos to appear on the homepage.
YouTube's stricter move comes as a result of the criticism that the company has been facing from parents and advocacy boards over its platform not being very safe and appropriate for children. While YouTube clearly states that its website isn’t meant for anyone under the age of 13 due to federal privacy protections and the fact that it provides an alternative platform for children known as YouTube Kids, it still does not stop young children from using YouTube's main site whether at home or elsewhere. Moreover, there are channels on YouTube that are specifically creating content for children.
Additionally, people living in countries in the EU will have to follow a few extra steps, such as providing additional evidence of their age. The process is, however, one-time and the provided information will be deleted once it is received by YouTube.
The new policy feature hasn't rolled out yet, but can be expected to come into action soon.
